California -- America's first failed state?

I enjoyed seeing a "9.0%" on my sales tax receipt this week.

 

That's true -- at least as true as it was when you said it on the previous page.

However, cutting the deficit by $14 billion in one year is a remarkable achievement.

 

The LA Times comes around to addressing the mountain of debt that hasn't gone away:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-debt-20130114,0,3244487.story

State officials must grapple with a major shortfall in the retirement fund for teachers. Fund officials have warned that Sacramento needs to immediately start contributing about $3 billion annually to keep the pension system solvent.

Sacramento could kick the bill to school districts, requiring them to start paying more pension costs from their own budgets. But the money needed now to stabilize the fund is enough to wipe out the $2.7-billion budget boost the governor is proposing for schools after many years of cuts.

"That is a demand that will have to be met," said David Crane, who advised Schwarzenegger on pensions and the economy. "Even if there is an increase in funding for schools, the districts may have to use that — and more — to meet that demand."

So far, lawmakers have taken no action to fill the gap. They have opted, for now, to let it grow. (The changes legislators made in public pensions last year do not fix the problem.)

They have taken the same approach with the escalating cost of retiree healthcare.

State employees on the payroll 10 years or more are guaranteed insurance coverage for life — a benefit bestowed decades ago, before the cost of medical care exploded. Now, the state is facing a bill of $62.1 billion for those employees over the next 30 years, according to state projections. Sacramento has set no money aside to cover the payments, and the tab grows each year.

Brown proposed that lawmakers confront that cost last year. Lawmakers balked and excluded his plan to limit the number of state workers eligible for retiree healthcare.

The cost of closing the gaps in California's major public pension funds would be considerable. The State Budget Crisis Task Force, a bipartisan think tank based in New York, reported in September that every Californian would have to contribute $3,635 to cover the shortfalls. Paying for retiree healthcare might add a couple of thousand dollars to that tab.

 

No.

 

Never been a huge Jerry Brown fan, but I like (alot!) that he is taking a critical eye to the UCs and CSUs. I don't see anybody else doing it.

Online classes, questioning the role of research for CSU profs. I like it.

 

You're full of crap. Without Prop 13, the government would be taking a lot more out of Californian's pockets. Prop 13 put limits on how much the government could increase their property taxes.

And without a supermajority approving tax hikes, the government would be raising those too....all to pay for union pension deals that they had no business agreeing to. California is going to continue to be in debt for years to come because of all of the money that it will owe to retiring government (union) employees. State Union workers are retiring at age 40-45 (with 80 percent of their highest pay rate) as pension per month.

People bitch and moan about the way things are going in California....and then go and keep re-electing the same idiots. The governor, in November, talked voters into approving a 'temporary' tax hike. I guarantee that when it's time for that tax hike to expire, it won't. California's elected officials are beholden to the unions, to the point of driving the state deeper and deeper into debt.

 

Aw, it's too bad you're so put upon by those damned Democrats. You should move to Idaho or Utah.

 

But if you consider unfunded pension liabilities the sign of a failed state lots of other states are in the same boat.

The amounts in California willa lways be higher than in other states becasue of the population size but many states have comparible problems.

For example, in New Jersey, Christie is still not fully funding the annual contribution to the state teachers funds. He took the much of the savings from the first round of reforms to cut income taxes instead.

 

Too busy making movies and campaigning for fellow Republicans to comment.

 

Everybody cry for Phil Mickelson! Says he's leaving the state because of the tax hikes. GOP rallying around Phil. And what an example of plight he is!

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/phil-mickelson-plans-drastic-changes-due-to-tax-situation-012013

He's walking it back now, of course. And as this column shows, Phil has a really shitty accountant if he's paying as much as he says he's paying.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/breaking-down-mickelsons-tax-codes/

 

Michelson has a Big Four accounting firm logo on his hat, fer chrissakes.

 

Tiger says it's why he left California: